Yoli invites Elf to live with her in Toronto

Yolandi’s invitation for Elfrieda to stay with her in Toronto is an attempt to make continued life imaginable in practical, ordinary terms: a different home, a piano if Elfrieda wants one, walks and meals together, and a small boat on the lake. It is not presented as a cure or a settled alternative to assisted death. Even as Yolandi makes the proposal, she continues to investigate the Swiss option, and the family’s hope remains conditional and uncertain.

Background: the Swiss option

Earlier, Yolandi refused Elfrieda’s request to take her to Switzerland. The refusal did not end the question. After learning that Nic was going to Spain, Yolandi researched access to Nembutal there and the legal position on assisted death in Switzerland. She understood Swiss law to permit assistance for a mentally ill person under certain circumstances, provided the helper had no selfish motive, and saw why Elfrieda had asked her to make the journey.

Yolandi considered two routes: Mexico, where she imagined obtaining Nembutal, and Zurich, where a clinic might provide a legal process. Each involved uncertainties, including how Swiss doctors would assess Elfrieda’s suffering and whether Nic and Lottie would agree. Yolandi also worried that telling Elfrieda about a possible plan could extinguish any remaining hope of living. When Yolandi later mentioned the cost of a Zurich clinic to Julie, Julie questioned whether assisted death was meant only for people already dying. Yolandi answered that she believed people experiencing mental illness could also qualify under Swiss law. Their exchange shows that the legal possibility and the moral decision remained unsettled.

The invitation and its practical terms

Against this background, Yolandi tells Lottie that she thinks it would be good for Elfrieda to stay with her in Toronto for a while after leaving hospital. She offers a change of scene, not pressure to perform or recover on anyone else’s timetable. Yolandi would be at home, and Nora would be there often. She proposes renting a piano if Elfrieda wants to play, and even imagines getting a small rowboat for outings on the lake near her home.

The details make the invitation more than a general appeal to keep trying. Yolandi plans to prepare Nora’s room for Elfrieda, while Nora can sleep on the futon in the living room. Yolandi expects to be at home working on her book, and describes a shared routine of walking, eating, and sleeping, with activities shaped around what Elfrieda wants. The boat becomes a particular image of possibility: a modest way to spend time together, not a demand that Elfrieda take up a new interest. Lottie likes the idea, though she asks whether Nic has been consulted and whether Yolandi is prepared for the uncertainty of Elfrieda’s behavior.

Family response and practical obstacles

Yolandi says Elfrieda wants to come. She also tells Lottie that the concert tour has been called off, removing one source of pressure and leaving Elfrieda without the obligation to think about the tour. Yolandi reasons that the family will worry wherever Elfrieda is, so a change of environment may be worth attempting. Lottie responds with cautious encouragement, while still acknowledging that no one can predict what Elfrieda will do.

Yolandi later calls Nic to ask whether Elfrieda has mentioned moving to Toronto. He says she has not, but that if Elfrieda wants to go, he sees no reason she should not. His subdued agreement is not an endorsement of every detail: he notes that, as far as he knows, Elfrieda is not especially interested in boating. Still, he does not oppose the stay. His response makes the invitation a possible shared family arrangement rather than a plan Yolandi has made without consulting Elfrieda’s husband.

The proposal develops while Elfrieda remains in hospital and her condition appears not to be changing. Nic and Lottie spend much of their time there; Yolandi’s conversations with them are brief updates. At the same time, Yolandi continues researching the Swiss option. She asks a bank about borrowing twenty thousand dollars for travel and related expenses, but is told she needs evidence of income or a book contract. She writes quickly to meet a publishing deadline and draws on what remains of an arts grant and the proceeds from the family’s former Winnipeg home. These efforts show that the Toronto invitation does not simply replace the assisted-death plan: both possibilities occupy Yolandi’s thinking as she tries to respond to a crisis she cannot control.

Significance and limits

The invitation’s force lies in its attention to everyday arrangements. A room can be reassigned; a piano can be rented; a boat might be found. Yolandi offers companionship and flexibility rather than a promise that a new setting will resolve Elfrieda’s despair. Her repeated insistence that the stay is worth trying acknowledges both the importance and the limits of what she can offer.

The proposal also shifts the immediate question from whether Yolandi will take Elfrieda to Switzerland to whether Elfrieda can spend time in Toronto, with family nearby and no concert tour to meet. Yet the shift is not a conclusion. Yolandi remains concerned about Elfrieda’s safety, continues to research Zurich, and has not secured the money she thinks the journey would require. The invitation therefore holds together two impulses in the family’s response: to create conditions for Elfrieda to remain among them, and to consider what assistance might mean if she continues to seek death. The Toronto plan offers a concrete opening for shared life, but the evidence leaves its outcome unresolved.